Sotheby’s is honored to announce that it will auction a painting from Madonna’s collection in its Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on 7 May 2013. Proceeds from the sale of Fernand Leger’s Trois femmes à la table rouge, which is estimated at $5/7 million, will benefit the Ray of Light Foundation to support girls’ education projects in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries.

In Afghanistan, just 12% of women are literate and it is estimated that only seven girls to every ten boys are able to attend school. In Pakistan, which has one of the largest populations of out-of-school children in the world, it is estimated that there are more than 3 million primary school-aged girls unable to attend school.

Madonna commented…

I have a great passion for art and a great passion for education. In conjunction with Sotheby’s, I would like to share these two passions. I have chosen to auction this painting called Three Women by Fernand Leger and donate all the proceeds to support girls’ educational projects in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries where female education is rare or nonexistent. I cannot accept a world where women or girls are wounded, shot or killed for either going to school or teaching in girls’ schools. We don’t have time to be complacent. I want to trade something valuable for something invaluable – Educating Girls! Knowledge is power. Let’s change the world!

The work will be on view at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from April 3rd to April 7th and in London from April 12th to April 16th, before returning to New York for exhibition in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries beginning May 3.

Madonna is parting with an abstract French painting she’s owned for more than 20 years to support educating girls in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries. It’s expected to bring $5 million to $7 million.

Fernand Léger’s “Three Women at the Red Table” will be offered May 7 at Sotheby’s auction house. All proceeds will benefit the Ray of Light Foundation.

The pop diva says she wants “to trade something valuable for something invaluable” in countries where female education is rare or nonexistent.

She purchased “Three Women” at Sotheby’s in 1990.

Léger created the work in 1921 as part of a series depicting women with still-life compositions.

Other examples from the series are in the Dallas Museum of Art and the Beyeler Foundation in Switzerland.